Open Water Data

The Open Water Data (OWD) Program manages information systems for data publishing and facilitates coordination across Reclamation and with external partners on data sharing and data publication.

Since 2016, Reclamation has been investing in new information systems to make our water and water-related data more easily found, shared, and used, in accordance with the OPEN Government Data Act. A pilot system, the Reclamation Water Information System (RWIS), was developed to demonstrate Reclamation’s capability to publish datasets in a centralized portal in consistent, machine-readable formats. RWIS makes a subset of Reclamation’s water time series data from each region available for download and access via web services.

The Reclamation Information Sharing Environment (RISE) will replace RWIS, providing programs across Reclamation the ability to share water and water-related data in open formats through a centralized portal that serves a wide range of users, including Reclamation staff, partners in Federal, state, and local agencies, stakeholders, researchers, and the general public. The scope of data to be published in RISE encompasses multiple types (e.g., time series, geospatial, documents, etc.), and many data domains (e.g., hydropower, infrastructure/assets, and environmental data. 


  • RISE

    RISE 1.0.0 now available on the DOI Network

    (December 2019) - RISE Release 1.0.0 was deployed in December 2019 at data.usbr.gov for access to those on the DOI network. This release of RISE is targeted towards internal users and current RWIS users for review and testing. It includes basic versions of most planned system components and data from some of our early adopter data stewards. Additional datasets will be added over the coming weeks and months. Future RISE releases will enhance the existing system components and add additional functionality (e.g. saved searches and queries).

    Visit RISE

  • RWIS

    Bureau of Reclamation makes water and related data available for easy download and use

    (April 27, 2017) - The Bureau of Reclamation is making its water data publicly available and easily accessible through a new open data pilot project. The Reclamation Water Information System (RWIS) consolidates and publishes water and related data from throughout Reclamation, which makes it easier to locate and access. 

    Visit RWIS


Last Updated: 5/8/20